'We'll back you all the way,' TUC tells CWU

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Privatising Royal Mail would be a "disaster" for the country, the leader of the TUC warned today as she addressed CWU Annual Conference in Bournemouth.

Referring to both the union's ongoing campaign against Royal Mail privatisation and the current industrial action involving Crown Post Office staff, Frances O'Grady pledged the wholehearted support of the TUC at what she described as "a critical time" for the CWU.

"Together you face some big challenges, and nowhere more so than in the Post Office following the daft decision to separate it from Royal Mail last year and with Government talk of possible 'mutualisation'," she told delegates.

To warm applause, Frances paid tribute to the 2,000-plus CWU members in Crown Post Offices who have already taken two days of strike action, with more to follow, in the face of the company's stubborn refusal to offer a consolidated pay rise.

"These workers haven't had a pay rise for a year - a fifth of the network could be cut and 800 jobs are at risk. All this when the Post Office is forecasting profits of £90 million this year.

"That's why you are absolutely right to fight back - not just for jobs, not just for a decent wage but to defend services to our communities."

The CWU, she stressed, had the public on its side on both the Crown office issue and on the union's wider campaign against Royal Mail privatisation. "If you ask the ordinary person on the street who they trust to tell the truth - a member of your union or a member of the Government - there' no contest," she insisted.


"So today I want to send a message to Government. Workers never take strike action lightly. We always try to find a fair and just resolution to disputes - but we will not stand by and see services cut and workers walked over."

Referring to the threat of Royal Mail privatisation, Frances was scathing about the record of previous sell-offs and insisted that, once again, the CWU has the public on its side as it embarks on the "Save Our Royal Mail" campaign

"Remember when the Tories told us that privatising rail would make the system more efficient, cut customer fares and attract new investment?" she asked. "Since privatisation, not just fares and profits have increased, but the public subsidy has gone up too!

"Remember when the Tories told us that increasing competition by privatising the utilities would bring down bills? Another whoppa!

"So the Government can't fool anyone that their plans for Royal Mail are in the public interest. The public know better. Prices would rocket, small businesses suffer and rural communities would be abandoned.

"The evidence is clear - privatisation is bad for workers, bad for customers and bad for Britain.

"The British public are overwhelmingly against privatisation. Royal Mail has already modernised and the service is now more stable than at any point in a decade, but they want to wreck it.

"Let us say to the Government, our Royal Mail is not for sale. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever."

The TUC leader told Conference that workers are now up against the "nastiest, most ideological, right-wing" government in history.

"It is hell bent on finishing the project Thatcher started - slashing and burning its way to a potential triple dip recession."

It was, she insisted, "a Government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich," intent on "destroying public services that have taken generations to build."

She announced that the TUC was planning to launch a nationwide campaign, taking its message to towns and cities across the country in the campaign for jobs and economic growth.

That campaign will highlight ongoing Government attacks on the poor and the vulnerable, but also the way in which ordinary working families are suffering from the effects of the Government's austerity agenda and its ideological attacks on workers' rights.

These issues, Frances stressed, affect the entire trade union movement - but, citing the particular challenges faced by the CWU, her message of support was unequivocal

"Just so there's no confusion, let me be clear. The TUC will back the CWU all the way. The TUC will always back our unions, including over co-ordinated industrial action wherever unions want it and whenever workers vote for it."

Read Frances O'Grady's speech in full http://www.cwu.org/tuc-leader-frances-o ... eechl.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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